Giants bounce Cowboys, 21-17

New York will play at Green Bay next Sunday for a Super Bowl berth.

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Peyton Manning has a championship game to be at next weekend after all. He can go watch baby brother Eli guide the New York Giants.

A few hours after the reigning Super Bowl MVP lost his chance to get back to the big game, the less-heralded, often-criticized member of football’s most famous family got the biggest victory of his career. Manning led the Giants past Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 Sunday and into the NFC title game.

“I won’t get tired of hearing that this week,” Manning said. “No one’s given us much credit and probably still won’t. But that’s OK. We like it that way.”

Eli threw two touchdown passes to Amani Toomer and led another scoring drive early in the fourth quarter. While he wasn’t great, he was good enough to lead New York to its ninth straight road win and into a 10th road game — at Green Bay, with the winner getting a spot in the Super Bowl. It’s the furthest New York has advanced since the 2000 season.

“I was a little nervous,” said Eli, who was 12-of-18 for 163 yards. “I know [Peyton] was watching and rooting for me.”

Peyton and Romo can commiserate together at the Pro Bowl next month. That’s the next game either will be playing.

The Cowboys’ season ended with Romo throwing a fourth-down pass into the end zone and cornerback R.W. McQuarters stepping in front of Terry Glenn for the interception. It marked Romo’s second straight disappointing finish to a playoff game, following his flubbed hold of a short field goal in Seattle a year ago.

“It hurts,” said Romo, 18-of-36 for 201 yards with a touchdown and a sack on each of the final two drives. “It’s tough right now.”

Romo came in looking to make up for last season’s finish, to prove his sluggish December was no big deal and to quiet everyone who accused him of mixed-up priorities for joining girlfriend Jessica Simpson on the beach in Mexico last weekend.

He couldn’t do it, but it wasn’t all his fault.

The offense stopped drives with penalties, while the defense kept New York drives alive by drawing more flags. There also was sloppy tackling on defense and special teams, dropped passes and wasted timeouts.

Dallas scored 45 and 31 points in winning the first two meetings with New York by loading up on big plays, usually because Romo did a great job avoiding the blitzers who racked up an NFL-best 53 sacks.

This time, the Giants were content to give up short yardage and the Cowboys accepted the invitation, especially with Marion Barber joining the starting lineup for the first time.

A Pro Bowler as a backup, Barber racked up 101 yards by halftime but the game was tied at 14, thanks to a last-minute drive aided by a 15-yard facemask penalty and capped with Manning throwing a 4-yard touchdown pass to Toomer. The pair hooked up for a 52-yard touchdown on the game-opening drive, with Toomer taking a short pass, bouncing off two defenders and running from everyone else.

It finally came down to this: the Cowboys had 1:50 left to go 48 yards.

A Brett Favre-esque scrambling shovel pass to Jason Witten got the Cowboys to the 22 with 31 seconds left, then came more mistakes — another false start, a short pass that forced Dallas to use its final timeout and a pair of poor throws, a ball in the end zone that Patrick Crayton seemed to give up on before futilely speeding up and the final play, caught by McQuarters.a